Rep. Tim Burchett said he’s all in for a public hearing for Hunter Biden, saying the public is getting tired of waiting to find out the results of the investigation.
“I just think we need to get to the bottom of this and stop messing around. We either need to fish or cut bait, and right now, all we’re doing is cutting bait,” Mr. Burchett, Tennessee Republican, said on NewsNation. “The American public’s growing very tired of it.”
Mr. Biden said Tuesday that he is willing to testify before the House Oversight Committee in December in response to their inquiry into foreign business deals and what role President Biden, his father, might have played in them.
“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door. If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let the light shine on these proceedings,” Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote in the letter.
Mr. Burchett said he’s an “open-door kind of guy,” and is fine with the hearing being public or private, but he said the testimony is “what matters most” in the investigation.
“I’m falling on the side of let him come. I don’t care if he wants to sit in a bathtub and do it. I don’t care. Just get his dad-gum butt before the committee and let’s ask him some tough questions,” he said.
Republican lawmakers have been split on the request by the president’s son. Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and Oversight Committee chairman, said Tuesday Hunter Biden can testify publicly in the future, but he expects him to sit for a Dec. 13 deposition as it was outlined in the subpoena.
“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else. That won’t stand with House Republicans. Our lawfully issued subpoena to Hunter Biden requires him to appear for a deposition on December 13,” Mr. Comer said in a statement.
“We expect full cooperation with our subpoena for a deposition but also agree that Hunter Biden should have the opportunity to testify in a public setting at a future date,” he added.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight panel, went publicly with his annoyance at the committee’s rejection.
“Let me get this straight. After wailing and moaning for ten months about Hunter Biden and alluding to some vast unproven family conspiracy, after sending Hunter Biden a subpoena to appear and testify, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Republicans now reject his offer to appear before the full Committee and the eyes of the world and to answer any questions that they pose?” he said in a statement.
Other Hill Republicans also have stated the testimony should be public to reassure the voters.
Sen. Josh Hawley told The Hill that the “American people have a right to see — and also, you know, they should evaluate this for themselves.”
“If you do this stuff in private … what happens is there’s inevitably bunches of leaks, and then it’s, ’Well so-and-so said this, and so-and-so said that.’ It’s like, just do it in the public, and let the public see. Open the door so y’all can report on it,” he said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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